CallaRose4ever: thank you!! :)

HarryPGinnyW4eva: hahaha poor Draco is so embarrassed but they were all trying to help so... he pretrends that no one knows xD and ingnores them

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Flames

The last two weeks before Hermione presented her pro-half-humans and magical creatures bill to the Wizengamot had passed all too quickly.

Both she and Draco had gone to meet her parents at the London airport to escort them to their new and improved home.

Her mother Jean screamed at the sight of the ring on her finger and Peter stared at Draco seriously, causing him to take a step back. Finally, he offered him a hand, shaking his and welcoming him into the family.

They had both decided that the wedding would be in spring, in a place that was very important for both of them. Especially for Draco.

Only their closest friends knew that this was a completely unnecessary formality. Their souls and bodies were already bound together in an unbreakable magical bond.

After the trip to Italy, Hermione returned from the Ministry after her first day of work with a copy of the 1026-D form already signed by her. And the next day she delivered it to her department with Draco's signature, making them both registered as mates.

Veelas with no mate had a reputation for being dangerous and difficult to control. And that, including the Diagon Alley incident, had forced Draco to stay away from public areas, waiting until the dust settled.

He would reduce any copy of the Prophet that crossed his path to ashes. It was a rare day when Rita Skeeter didn't publish something about how dangerous half-humans like him were.

In her opinion, werewolves and Veelas should be under the strict control of the Ministry.

Hermione was furious every time she heard the woman's name. The first thing she planned to do when the new law was passed was to demand her resignation.

She wasn't going to stop until she made it. Surrendering was not an option.

She wanted Draco to be totally free, just like her. To make some of the injustices of the magical world disappear.

Hermione had revised everything to the point of exhaustion, and he was reading and rereading the draft while she was working.

It was perfect. The Wizengamot would have no choice but to accept it.

Hermione sighed and left her office, glancing sideways at the calendar hanging on the far wall.

Two days. There were only two days left.

The lift stopped in the Atrium and she walked over to one of the fireplaces with her coat in her hand. Green flames surrounded her body, leaving her soon after on the embers of the Grimmauld Place fireplace.

Harry and Draco were waiting for her in the kitchen with dinner ready.

"Hello, boys," she greeted, plopping down on one of the wooden chairs and huffing loudly.

Harry smiled slightly and Draco arched an eyebrow, pulling a butterbeer out of the fridge and pouring it into a glass. He walked over to her and set it down on the table.

She gave him a grateful smile, warming the drink with a flick of her wand.

The three of them shared the meal as they went over the plan for the tenth time. Harry, Ron and Narcissa would be on the benches in the courtroom, ready to give their testimony if necessary.

Though, if everything went as Hermione had planned, it wouldn't need to come to that.

Half an hour later she and Draco said goodbye to Harry, walking up the stairs to the second floor and into her room.

He wrapped his arms around her as soon as he closed the door, turning her around and trapping her lips between his.

Hermione closed her eyes, letting his kisses erase all worries from her mind for a moment. She gasped when he deepened the kiss, taking a step back.

"I'm exhausted."

"I know, Hermione," Draco dug his hands into her curls, smiling and brushing the tip of his nose against hers. "I just want to kiss you some more."

Hermione sighed as he leaned in and claimed her lips again, their tongues joining in a slow, torturous kiss that awakened that little flame that flared inside her every time he touched her.

Draco seemed insatiable, as if he could never get enough. Every night he kissed her until she was breathless, taking possession of her body in every way imaginable and licking the mark on her neck with every roll of his hips.

She had already had to repair the shower on the second floor several times. As promised, a few days after returning from the Italian villa they both spent over an hour under the running water with her back pressed against the wall as he thrust in and out of her desperately, biting and sucking every inch of skin his lips could touch.

She would never forget Draco's reaction when she decided to try doing what he loved so much, kneeling in front of him and looking up into his eyes so she wouldn't miss a single one of his expressions. His silver wings shot out from his back as soon as she brushed him with her lips, shattering the shower screen into a thousand pieces.

Luckily she fixed it easily afterwards with a few flicks of her wand, thankful that Harry wasn't home at the time and hadn't heard the sound of breaking glass or Draco's growls.

The need to feel him close occupied every corner of her mind, preventing her from concentrating on her work. Draco assured her that it was normal to feel this way after sealing the bond and that everything would return to normal after a few weeks.

But she doubted she would ever be able to look at him and not want to kiss him. She felt complete for the first time in her life, though she had never noticed that something was missing until Draco filled the hole that was hidden deep in her heart.

The next morning she woke up wrapped in his arms and smiled as she stirred and heard him sigh.

"What time is it?" Draco asked huskily, pressing her against his chest again so she couldn't pull away.

She laughed softly, rolling over on the mattress and brushing back the blond locks that fell across his forehead.

"We have a lot to do today."

Draco opened his grey eyes and stared at her as a small smile spread across his face.

"Potter's not going to like it."

Hermione let out a long sigh. The idea of them moving out and not living with him had not gone down well with her best friend.

Even though he had caught them more than once scantily clad and indulging their passion on one of the sofas, or on the kitchen counter while Draco was preparing one of his meals, Harry didn't want to be alone in that big house.

And it was still eight months before Ginny returned from Hogwarts.

After a quick shower separated to avoid distractions they both descended the stairs to the ground floor, finding Harry in the kitchen with breakfast already prepared.

He twisted his face as he saw them appear, averting his gaze and taking a large sip of his coffee. Hermione sighed again, moving closer to him and wrapping her arm around his waist.

"We couldn't stay here forever, Harry," she murmured, resting her head on his shoulder.

He shrugged, snorting.

"I wouldn't have minded. It's going to get lonely in this house without you."

Draco sat down in the chair across from them, picking out one of the chocolate biscuits he'd baked himself the day before and taking a bite.

"We'll come to visit you, Potter."

Hermione nodded with a smile.

Harry watched the two of them in silence for a moment. He sat down next to her and set his now empty mug on the table, crossing his arms.

"Once your probationary period is over, I'm going to hand in my resignation."

Draco looked up with a frown and Hermione turned her head in surprise.

"What?"

Harry's green eyes fell on her and she saw a spark of fear in them.

"I don't want to be an Auror," he admitted in a whisper.

She swallowed.

"Oh."

She knew that leaving that job would make Harry feel guilty. The wizarding world had reacted with cheers and applause when he'd joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and they wouldn't look kindly on him taking a step back.

But her friend had already given too much for a society that deserved nothing more from him.

Draco glanced sideways at her with a raised eyebrow, as if he could guess her thoughts.

"I've always thought that you shouldn't spend more time doing what you've been doing your whole life," he commented quietly, cocking his head to the side as he filled his and Hermione's mug. "It's okay to let others catch the bad guys for once."

Harry's smile was the only confirmation Hermione needed. If her friend thought a change was best for him, he would have her full support.

"McGonagall told me that the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching post will be waiting for me whenever I decide to quit."

"That's great, Harry!" Hermione hugged him again, all smiles. "You'll be an amazing teacher."

He had already proved that when he was in charge of Dumbledore's Army. Harry scratched the back of his neck, looking away to hide his blush.

"Thank you," he murmured, sighing through his nose. "I hope so."

Draco stood up, patting Harry's shoulder as he passed and stopped beside Hermione.

"Come on, Granger. The Muggle will be waiting to give us the keys."

They had bought a small house in the Muggle part of London, very close to where Hermione's parents lived. They planned to spend that morning connecting their fireplace to the Floo Network and spreading all their belongings around the rooms with the help of the Malfoy Manor elves.

By noon they would be settled in their new house, and in the evening all their friends were invited to dinner to inaugurate it. Including the Slytherins.

Harry rolled his eyes as she stood up and picked up her beaded handbag.

"Are you ever going to stop calling her Granger?"

Hermione exchanged a glance with Draco, feeling her cheeks redden at the crooked smile on his face.

When they were alone he called her by her name constantly, whispering it in her ear and murmuring it between her lips.

Harry's brow furrowed.

"What does that look mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing," Hermione cleared her throat, cursing Draco inwardly as she heard him chuckle. "I'll see you tonight, Harry. Tell Ron to bring Padma," she added, turning and walking towards the door.

Draco soon followed, catching her before she reached the fireplace.

"Why don't you tell him when I say your name?"

She pursed her lips, punching his shoulder. She couldn't help but smile when she heard him laugh again.

His laughter was infectious, and she had never seen him so happy.

"My Hermione," he whispered, leaving a short kiss on her lips. "We're going to the manor this afternoon. My mother isn't here, and I think you could relax by the pool."

"Relax?" she asked, lifting her brow.

His grin widened.

"Or go crazy. Whichever you prefer."

She rolled her eyes and swatted his arm, pulling away from him.

"Prat," she muttered under her breath, grabbing a handful of Floo Powder and ignoring the heat in her cheeks.

"You're the one who said you wanted to take a bath in there with me," he commented, moving to her side and pulling her curls aside to kiss the curve of her neck. "I only do your bidding."

"Weren't we going to be late?"

Draco wrinkled his nose and stepped back.

"You distract me too much."

"You're the one distracting me!" she scowled at him.

He smirked again and held her hand, opening her palm and dropping the powder onto the fireplace.

"Let's just say we're both distracting each other."

Hermione sighed, smiling as he laced his fingers with hers and they walked into the green flames together.

"Is there anything else you would like to add, Miss Granger?"

Hermione glanced down at her notebook, making sure she had mentioned every single entry. She looked at the members of the magical tribunal again, taking in each of their faces, and nodded.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I have brought several witnesses," she murmured, setting the notebook down on the table before her.

The doors to the room opened and Draco stepped through. He was wearing a black suit and his gaze didn't leave hers for a second as he walked to sit in the chair next to her.

"You all know Draco Malfoy, half-Veela. But I suspect many will think my opinion of him is not objective," Hermione said, exchanging a knowing glance with Kingsley, who winked at her. "So I've asked two other people to join us today."

The members of the court looked at each other as the doors opened again. A silver-haired woman entered the room, so beautiful that she took everyone's breath away. Beside her walked a man whose face bore several scars and who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

"This is Nadine Delacour, mother of Fleur Delacour and a half-Veela living in France," Hermione announced, nodding at the woman as she sat down next to them. "And Tom is a werewolf clan leader living in the north of Scotland."

Tom also took a seat, clasping his hands together and eyeing the court with suspicion. Hermione stood behind the three witnesses, folding her arms and staring at the older members of the Wizengamot, who were the most critical of her bill.

"I think everyone should listen to their stories carefully before making a decision."

Nadine stood up, greeting everyone with a nod of her chin.

The time had come to explain to the world that half-humans had existed for millennia and deserved the same rights as any other human being.

Hermione gasped as she heard the verdict, wiping the tears running down her cheeks with the back of her hand.

She exchanged a glance with Narcissa, who was just as emotional, and looked back to the front of the court.

The flashes of the cameras dazzled her but she did not move.

Accepted. The bill had been passed and was effective as of that very moment.

So many months of work and sleepless nights had paid off. Draco and all those like him were considered human again.

Arms curled around her and she felt lips on her forehead, bringing her back to reality.

"You've done it, my love," Draco whispered in a trembling voice, tightening his embrace and sighing.

Hermione looked up and her heart shrank as she saw that he too had tears in his eyes.

"I couldn't have done it without your help," she stroked his cheek, smiling when he closed his eyes. "What's going to be the first thing you do with your wand?"

Draco opened his eyes, giving her a smile so sincere that her heart skipped a beat.

"Prepare a feast for tonight," he looked at the Minister, who was still chatting happily with several members of the court. "We'll invite everyone to celebrate."

Harry and Ron reached them, enveloping them in a big hug that made Hermione laugh and Draco growl a protest.

The three friends left the room grinning, followed by Draco and his mother.

Narcissa couldn't stop crying, this time from joy, and her son was still smiling as he walked beside her with an arm around her shoulders.

They all climbed the stairs to the ninth floor and used the lifts to go up to the next floor, emerging into the Atrium where a storm of flashlights fell upon them.

Dozens of journalists were waiting to interview them near the fountain, and hundreds of onlookers crowded around them.

Harry, Ron and Hermione dodged them with ease, used to the unwanted attention, though she decided to stop in front of the reporter sent by The Prophet.

Luckily he wasn't Skeeter's bloody self, or her reaction would have been very different.

Harry and Ron stopped by the fireplace to wait for her and Narcissa approached them, hugging Harry with a big smile.

Draco stood by Hermione's side, ignoring the reporters who kept snapping pictures.

She answered the questions, announcing that this day would go down in history as one in which justice had been done in the magical world.

Hermione felt a knot in her stomach and glanced sideways at Draco, watching him scan the crowd with narrowed eyes.

'What's wrong?'

He clenched his jaw as he heard her voice in his mind.

'I don't know. I have a bad feeling.'

She turned her attention back to the reporter, who was still asking questions and trying to deflect the topic to her romantic relationship with Draco.

Hermione twisted her lips, revealing just enough for the audience to understand that, although the idea for this new law had come about to help Draco, she had done it for all the magical creatures that had been sidelined by the Ministry of Magic for years.

It all seemed to pause when three wands emerged from among the onlookers, pointed straight at her heart.

"Avada Kedrava!"

Before she could react Draco had transformed and surrounded her with his wings, standing between her and the Unforgivable Curses.

But Hermione wasn't about to let him die to protect her. She held his waist and spun them around, facing them again.

Her wand was in her hand and she barely had to move it. A golden shield surrounded them both and there was an explosion as the three beams of greenish light slammed into the magical barrier, instantly disintegrating.

People screamed, fleeing in all directions as the Aurors ran to the centre of the Atrium.

Hermione gasped, looking around.

Fifteen people had fallen to the ground, pushed by the force of her protective spell. Among them were the three attackers.

Hermione looked at Draco with a confused expression and saw that his body was engulfed in flames. He looked at her as well and she heard his voice in her mind.

'I told you we are more powerful now.'

He released her and his roar echoed through the walls of the Ministry. Draco lunged at the three people who had tried to assassinate her, pushing them to the ground before they could try to stand up.

Hermione rushed to his side and tried to push him off of them without success. Draco was too strong.

If he killed them, everything they had achieved that morning would have been for nothing.

Draco wrapped his claw around one of the men's necks, lifting his face until their eyes were level.

His silver irises flashed and the man gasped, paling.

"This shit wanted to finish you off because he knows it would kill me too," he growled in a raspy voice, tightening his grip around his throat.

The man's face began to turn red. He was choking.

"Let them go," Hermione stopped tugging on his arm and knelt down beside him, placing her hands on his cheeks. "Look at me, Draco."

He obeyed. His expression was cold and angry and his arms were shaking. He was furious.

"I'm fine," she whispered, maintaining eye contact. "We're fine."

Draco worked his jaw and drove his knee deeper into the chest of another of the men, who groaned in pain.

"Let them go," she insisted, stroking his face and smiling. "It's not worth it."

She watched him swallow and his huge wings folded behind his back as he stood up, holding Hermione in his arms and pulling her away from the attackers.

Harry, Ron and five other Aurors were already at their side. Her two friends put the three men's wands in their pockets as they pointed their wands at them, waves of anger sparking in their clear eyes.

Another Auror conjured handcuffs around their wrists, and the other four lifted them off the ground.

"You're going straight to Azkaban for attempted murder," the senior auror announced, jerking her chin towards the fireplaces.

The Aurors led them away without a backward glance.

Hermione met Narcissa's terrified gaze as she stood by the fireplace with one hand on her chest.

It had been so close to ruining everything they had fought for.

Draco roared in her mind.

'What it's come close to is getting yourself killed.'

"Let us go!" one of the men shouted, jerking hard in the Auror's arms. "They are the dangerous ones!"

The Atrium was silent until the three disappeared into the green flames, on their way to their new cell in Azkaban.

After casting an Unforgivable Curse in front of hundreds of witnesses, there was no need for a trial. The sentence was to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Draco held Hermione's chin, lifting it until she looked him in the eye.

"Don't ever come between me and a killing curse again, Granger."

She furrowed her brow, shaking her head.

"I want to protect you too, and I intend to."

His face softened and he watched her, glancing between her eyes.

"No one has ever protected me like that."

The reporters had moved closer again, and the flashes of the cameras reflected off the dark walls of the Atrium. News of the attack would be all over the front pages the next morning.

"Well, get used to it," she murmured, placing her hands on his chest. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you."

His silver irises seemed to turn liquid and his wings trembled.

"Hermione..."

She held her breath as he leaned in, kissing her as if he had thought he could never do it again. Hermione broke the kiss, clinging tighter to him, and Draco pressed their foreheads together.

The thought of losing him had terrified her, though she had been able to react in time.

Harry sighed, looking at them as they broke apart.

"It looks to me like I'm going to have a lot of work to do in the time I have left here."

Ron nodded seriously beside him. Those three people wouldn't be the only ones to try something like this.

"Count me in, Potter," Draco grunted, wrapping his arms around Hermione's neck and pulling her against his chest. "I can help you."

Harry watched his three friends with concern. More Aurors had arrived in the Atrium and had formed a security cordon around them, preventing anyone else from approaching while they investigated what had just happened and gathered witness testimony.

"I think it's time to bring out my father's cloak again," he announced quietly, looking around to make sure no one was listening. "We'll catch anyone who tries to attack you, Hermione. I promise."

Narcissa remained in the same place while everyone gave their side of the story. The Aurors were satisfied after half an hour, muttering for them to go home and rest.

Hermione gave Draco a sidelong glance as they walked towards his mother, with Harry and Ron at her back.

"Are you calmer?"

He squeezed her hand. It hadn't been a minute since he'd reverted back to his human form and she could still see the worry in his eyes.

And she could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She suspected they would both need several hours to calm down.

"Let's go get my wand," he said, grabbing his mother's arm with his free hand and pulling them both into the nearest fireplace. "I will carry it with me until Potter and the rest of the Aurors make sure you're safe."

Hermione smiled as the green flames engulfed them.

Draco could use his wand again.

A pretty intense penultimate chapter! I hope you liked it, the last chapters of a fic are always the hardest for me to write.

All that's left is the epilogue, which I hope to have finished by next week!